“W-why do you always have to run off with Psyche in tow?” Adrian puffed out after finally catching up to us. “Also while I’m asking questions, how are you so fast?”

  “I did running workouts around Akala and Ula’Ula islands before I came here,” Lani replied, “I haven’t kept up with the intensity since arriving, but running Psyche around is a decent substitute!”

  She finished with a grin before looking over at a slightly disheveled me, who was splitting her attention between giving her a stink eye, and silently demanding the Pokemon nutrient mix I was looking at to share all its secrets with me.

  “I am not a substitute for workout equipment.”

  Oxide made an agreeing huff, since she was knocked loose from her perch when Lani yoinked me away.

  Finally finding the mix I was looking for, I put it into the shopping cart. Tirtouga needed more minerals in his food so his constitution wouldn’t suffer. I then turned to them both, “do either of you have any requests for foods I could make for us three on the road besides basic trail mix, soups, and pancakes?”

  “PB&J!” Adrian exclaimed, “especially if they have pecha jam here somewhere.”

  Lani hummed as she thought, “Skewers? We could forage for greens, and maybe grab some meats and veggies for them, and cook them on the road?”

  I nodded, “Okay then, Adrian you’re in charge of sandwich fixings and trail mix stuff, and Lani is in charge of getting skewer supplies for a meal or two. I’ll get the pancake mix, and restock my berries.” I paused, “Obviously you both are responsible for your own Pokemon’s food needs when it comes to supplements and such.”

  Lani pretty much instantly rushed off towards the meat counter, cutting right in front of a kid standing dead center in the aisle with a “‘scuse me”. Adrian rolled his eyes, and started walking down to the fruit and nuts aisle.

  I turned back to the nutrients to find some iron fortified mix for Oxide (Rain had pulled me aside back in Nuvema to recommend I grab some to help bolster Oxide’s electricity reserves).

  “Didn’t think those two would ever leave you alone.”

  I whirled back around so fast Oxide nearly got thrown off my head. “Blue Coat! Don’t startle me like that!”

  He had appeared from nowhere, an Umbreon by his side who looked up at me and yawned.

  “Are you still- you know what nevermind.” He said with a shake of his head. “I’m here to discuss what we never got to finish talking about last night. More specifically what you’re going to be doing.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Because you’re still a brand new trainer, and Krane would tear me a new one if I forced you to group up with us, you’ll be staying on your journey for the time being.” He raised a hand to stop my protests, “I’m not benching you, in fact we’ll probably pull you from your group, to help us out on missions and such after you’ve gotten a bit stronger.”

  “And if I end up running into them or discovering something?”

  “Then you call us as soon as possible,” he pulled out his phone, “speaking of, here’s mine and the others numbers.”

  I quickly pulled out my own phone and typed in the numbers he gave me.

  “How do I use,” I hesitated, unsure of how to phrase it, “y’know, the thing.“

  Blue Coat’s lips twitched upwards, “It’ll all be in the manual Krane left you, but Michael and I will go over things in a bit more of a practical detail later. Probably when you’re in Striaton. Any other questions for me at all, kid?”

  I thought for a moment, “Will I get help with training my team as well?”

  He gained a genuine smile, “Of course, Jumpluff would never let me rest otherwise since he’s decided he really wants to teach your Emolga something, and honestly I enjoy teaching this sort of thing.”

  His Umbreon grunted, causing him to wince, “The stuff I’ll be teaching you is a bit fine-tuned for our work though. In actual official formats you’ll need to cover the things our teams would miss. For example, Misty Terrain cripples a lot of our bread and butter strategies, but you can also use those counters to your advantage.”

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  He looked up and down the aisle, “any other questions kid? Kinda on a time limit here.”

  “Just one last thing. What do I do with any Pokemon I ‘catch?’” I asked.

  “That’s up to you,” he replied, “at minimum you need to call it in to us, but as for where the Pokemon ends up, be it on your team, or sent off to one of the purification chambers we’re setting up here, or even your friend’s teams-“ Umbreon grunted again. “-assuming they know the risks of their conditions. I was getting to that Umbreon thank you. It’s all up to you, just make sure that if they aren’t going to a purification chamber, they get a good home where you will be able to purify them… however you did that anyways.”

  He looked at his watch, “I gotta go kid, stay safe, and enjoy your journey. We’ll be in touch.” He walked out of the aisle, turned the corner, and vanished.

  “Well that was informative.” I mused to myself. “Come on Oxide, let’s go get those supplies before the others worry.”

  ***

  Lani and Adrian thankfully didn’t get too much for either of their food choices. Adrian as promised got peanut butter, pecha berry jam, and whole grain bread. Lani ended up getting sticks, meat hunks, some leafy greens and other vegetables, and some sauces and seasonings. And I grabbed a few boxes of pancake mix, berries, and a few types of broth we would need for berry soups. It wouldn’t be as nice as it would be if I made the batter from scratch, but it would do in a pinch, which we were in.

  Check out went smoothly, with each of us paying for our team specific items like vitamin and mineral supplements, and did an even split for all the assorted foods we had decided on.

  Then in no time at all we were at the exit to Route Two, the path leading out west before curving back around towards the north east.

  “Ah it feels good to be back out on the road!” Lani said while tossing her two poke balls forward. Dewpider and Vulpix materialized out of the swirling blue light.

  “Exercise time!” she shouted, “Nothing super strenuous, just walking for the day you two!”

  The pair cried out with glee at being able to stretch their legs.

  Following Lani’s lead, Adrian and I both released the rest of our team members. Ionia was excited to get a bit of fresh air, and I wanted to ask Tirtouga if he would be able to keep up with us without having water to swim in.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t really have much of any way to move quickly, that wasn’t incredibly taxing on him long term, and I wouldn’t be able to carry him for that long either.

  With a heavy heart, and a promise to let him out as soon as we stopped for a lunch break, I returned him. I then looked at the other two.

  “Oxide are you able to train whatever it was Jumpluff was showing you last night?” I asked while keeping my voice low, not wanting to deal with the awkwardness of not being able to explain what was going on to Adrian.

  Getting a nod from her, I returned a smile. “Go ahead and keep working on that while we walk, and we’ll work on perfecting Thundershock later.”

  “Ionia, I want you to practice your control with Mystical Fire while walking on your own,” I paused to consider my words before explaining further, “it’s an incredibly crucial move for the team right now, especially with the Castelia Gym being the first one we’ll be challenging.”

  The pair of them both saluted me, and almost instantly got to work. Oxide practically zipping away, while somehow slightly gaining a bit of height after the apex of her initial leap off the ground, and Ionia creating a line of fire and warping it too and fro.

  I took a deep breath and eased the bit of anxiety that poked up. If it starts to get out of control we have three water types on hand to put it out. Everything will be okay.

  Speaking of, I looked over at Lani and Adrian to see them all staring at me with a bit of shock.

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” Adrian replied as we began walking, “you just seem to really know what you’re doing is all.”

  I cringed slightly, “I might have eavesdropped on my older brother’s battle tutoring sessions when I was younger. He was allowed to get his Pokemon a lot earlier than me so I was jealous.”

  I sighed, “After he left for the circuit last year, I was sent to Blueberry Academy to ‘wisen me up’ or whatever. I miiiight have snuck a few courses about general training there, like how to plan workouts, when to give easy days, that sort of thing.”

  Lani took up her position next to me with an arm around my shoulder, “hey no need to delve into painful memories if it hurts you okay?”

  I patted her back in thanks. “It’s fine, talking about it helps. Besides, going to the Academy was the best thing that happened to me. If I hadn’t gone there, I wouldn’t have met Ionia.”

  Adrian looked over at me in shock, “I figured you met her out in White Forest, considering that’s where the Fairy Sanctuary is.”

  “Nope, never was allowed to go to White Forest,” I replied with a big of anger in my voice, “my Sperm Donor refused everytime I begged to go, and after I came home for winter break with Ionia in tow, he outright said the only time I would be allowed to go there was to challenge the gym and leave as soon as possible.”

  Lani’s arm pulled me closer to her, “Well for starters he’s a dick, and honestly that’s such a weird animosity to have for a forest of all things.”

  “It’s probably ‘cause of Black City,” Adrian said thoughtfully, “you said they were rich right?”

  I nodded.

  “Then they probably had some sort of something there before Reforestation happened. Mom said there was a lot of animosity over it back when it happened.”

  I looked over at him, “That’s probably right. He never really cared for the Quintet either, and they were at the forefront of that whole thing.”

  “I have no idea what any of this stuff is,” Lani admitted, disrupting the tension as if by magic. “So I’m just going to nod along, and look all this stuff up when we get to Striaton.”

  Lani is very much so a 'go with the flow' kinda person, also hey looks like both Black City and White Forest have existed at one point, wonder what that's about?

  Boilerplate time!

  I’d like to give a big thank you to for help editing!

  Pokemon seen this chapter:

  Umbreon

  Current Team:

  Ionia (Hatenna)

  Trained Abilities: Anticipation

  Moves: Teleport, Confusion, Play Nice, Life Dew, Disarming Voice, Mystical Fire

  Oxide (Emolga)

  Trained Abilities: TBD

  Moves: Nuzzle, Tail Whip, Double Team, Quick Attack, Thundershock

  Tirtouga

  Trained Abilities: TBD

  Moves: Water Gun, Withdraw, Aqua Jet, Smack Down, Ancient Power, Bite

  Do you want more words written by me?

  A Spark of Sylvan Flame A story about a trans farmgirl facing off against plant aliens, with items bought from an AI chip in her head!

  Thanks for reading! :D

  -DeliriousSprite